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As student government elections near, some candidates are already geared up to snag a Senate seat.
The Aspire for Associated Students of the University of New Mexico slate has started its campaign to be elected to the undergraduate student council’s Senate.
Absentee voting for this semester’s ASUNM Senate elections starts Thursday and Election Day will be next Wednesday.
Ten students are running with Aspire for this semester’s elections. Four of the candidates, Rachel Williams, Earl Shank, Mercedes Pratt and Grace Liu, currently hold positions in the ASUNM Senate.
Williams, a junior pursuing her double major in political science and international studies, said she and her fellow incumbents sought to “revolutionize what the stereotypical slate looked like.”
“We came up with this really diverse group of individuals,” she said. “They all have a huge passion for the University and look forward to working in the student government and representing the students.”
Williams said she served as chair of ASUNM’s Finance Committee this semester. She said her goal during her tenure was to restructure the committee.
“I’m trying to keep a very open conversation,” she said. “I’m trying to be very transparent. I’m trying to change the motto of the Finance Committee to, ‘It’s your money, and we’re just here to figure out how much of it we can give back to you.’”
Liu, a junior pursuing degrees in international relations and human rights, said that during her term the last two semesters she has worked on a committee to create the website students.unm.edu, which is intended to increase student retention and involvement.
She said she also served as vice chair of the Outreach and Appointments Committee.
“I think this semester we have done more outreach events than in the recent past,” she said. “So, that has been an amazing experience, just getting out there and hearing what students have to say — not just assuming what students want, but instead going out and hearing them.”
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Shank, a junior majoring in business, said that as a senator, he has tried to communicate with students and to go “above and beyond.”
“I’ve aspired to push myself to be an exceptional senator … through legislation, through trying to change the way things work to promote diversity and inclusion on campus through ASUNM,” he said. “And then my big thing has been the Green Fund and trying to push that through.”
Pratt, a junior majoring in psychology, said she has worked to reform Senate outreach.
“I’m working on improving the way senators do their outreach,” she said. “So they’re not just in the office, but they’re connecting with different organizations and the resource centers and they’re more visible to students.”
While most of the Aspire candidates would be new to the Senate, each believes they can contribute to the undergraduate government.
Hunter Thompson, a sophomore majoring in political science, said if he gets elected, he aims to promote community involvement and to foster research for undergraduate students.
“My big goal as a senator is to focus on increasing support for undergraduate research, because that’s not something that we are supporting enough for being a Carnegie research institution,” he said.
According to the UNM Health and Sciences Center site, the Carnegie Classification of Institutes of Higher Education designated UNM with a rating of “Doctoral/ Research Universities Extensive,” one of the highest research ratings.
Emma Grazier, a sophomore majoring in political science and economics, said all of the candidates’ involvement in various organizations will contribute to meeting the needs of the student body.
“I think we’re all very diverse in our affiliations with UNM and ASUNM groups and agencies,” she said. “I think that’s what makes us really great. We’re not the same person. We’re all different people. We’re all motivated to pursue what we think is important.”
Williams said she encourages students to branch out and communicate with Aspire candidates to find out why they should vote for the slate.
“We don’t just want people just throwing votes at us,” she said. “We want people to understand, and know we want to represent them.”
Aspire for ASUNM candidates:
Harold Chang
Emma Grazier
Taryn Levels
Grace Liu (incumbent)
Karla Molinar
Spenser Owens
Mercedes Pratt (incumbent)
Earl Shank (incumbent)
Hunter Thompson
Rachel Williams (incumbent)
